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The Motherhood Research Reveals How Sponsored Content Leads to Purchase

January 28, 2016 by The Motherhood

When researching products and making a purchase, consumers turn to real people whose opinions they value.

There has been a shift in online advertising, and consumers are less receptive to intrusive ads and impersonal brand messaging. Digital ad-blockers are now among the most popular app downloads, and to continue reaching target consumers online, brands are increasingly turning to sponsored content on blogs and social media.

Authentic, high-quality online content, developed by influencers, represents the future of public relations and digital marketing. However, the need to track how these sponsored content campaigns lead to consumers making a purchase is a critical challenge.

To help determine what kinds of messages encourage brand affinity and consumer purchase, The Motherhood asked more than 700 blog readers from across the country to share insights on how they consume online content, including sponsored content – and its impact on what they buy.

Creating Trust

I’m definitely more likely to trust another mom than I am to trust a brand advertisement.

Social media and blogs present the unique opportunity to build a sense of community and trust with others like us, and also for brands to authentically connect with consumers. Online influencers have created tribes of followers, made up of people who have similar interests and who value their opinions.

Blog readers highly value bloggers’ perspectives and recommendations. As a result, readers share those recommendations with their own communities in real life and online, creating a ripple effect. With 86 percent of readers talking to others offline about topics they’ve seen in blogs and on social media, sponsored content not only influences direct readers, but also the readers’ social circle, creating a trust circle with exponential reach.

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Readers aren’t Buyers — Yet

Personal stories I’ve read always weigh in my mind when making a decision about a product.

While consumers are reading blog posts and social media, they are just that – readers. A common misconception is that when an individual reads a blog or social post about a product they will immediately click through to purchase. Our study found that the influence of online content extends beyond that initial read.

After reading a blog post, the majority of consumers keep the information in mind for when they’re actively considering making a purchase in the future, and only 13 percent make a purchase right away. When evaluating the effectiveness of social media programs at driving sales, brand marketers need to recognize that there is most often a gap between the initial impression and the time when the consumer is ready to buy.

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Making a Purchase

One of the best things about the internet is that you can get all sorts of opinions on all sorts of things. You just have to connect with people who like what you like for the reasons you like.

However, when readers are ready to buy, brands they’ve read about online and those their friends have mentioned rise to the top of their minds. Although The Motherhood’s research found that making a purchase isn’t necessarily an immediate action, future purchases are very often influenced by sponsored content online: the vast majority of consumers stated they are more likely to purchase from a brand they’ve read about on a blog or in social media.

Want to know more? See the entire infographic below for the complete results of The Motherhood’s research!

sponsored content

Filed Under: Research & Insights Tagged With: bloggers, Influencers, purchasing behavior, Stats, Trust

Consumers want experiences, not things

September 15, 2015 by The Motherhood

I (Nicole) recently painted a ceramic bowl at a paint-your-own-pottery studio. I’m no artist, but I enjoy challenging my creativity, and it was a fun experience with my two sisters. The floral design is definitely not perfect, but I still love it. The ceramic bowl sits in the middle of my kitchen table filled with fruit for both a cute and practical centerpiece. I have other bowls that I could use and was even gifted with a “banana hanger,” but continue to use my own hand-painted bowl.

I have fallen for what is known as the “IKEA Effect.” This phenomenon – rooted in the idea that consumers want experiences, not things – is when people place higher value on items that they’ve created or partially helped create. Perhaps you’ve felt this way after building a piece of furniture, finishing a blog post you spent hours writing or painting a room in your home. You appreciate that end product more because you contributed to its creation.

Michael Norton at Harvard Business School and Dan Ariely at Duke University have discovered that consumers will appreciate a product that they’ve built (or partially built) more than the very same product that was built by someone else. By building their own products, consumers feel proud and competent.

Research shows that all age groups (not just millennials) are happier when they buy experiences rather than items. This might seem a little counterintuitive at first, but the reality is that material things we purchase easily become part of the new normal of our lives. Suddenly there’s a bigger flat-screen TV, a faster version of the iPhone, a trendier wardrobe available – and we want it. Experiences, on the other hand, become a part of our memories, identities and connections to other people.

So what can brands do with this the idea that consumers want experiences? Ask yourself how you can make your product or service more of an experience for your consumers. As Dan Ariely says, “Labor is not just a meaningful experience – it’s also a marketable one.”

Here a few examples of brands we’ve noticed are on top of this trend:

consumers want experiences
Photo credit: HelloFresh
  • We recently had the privilege of working with HelloFresh, a meal subscription service which provides subscribers the ingredients to make dinners that they can make on their own at home. Each meal box contains a recipe card and all of the necessary ingredients to make a dinner, eliminating the need for a trip (or several) to the store. Consumers still feel like they are cooking – and delicious, quality meals at that – but without the work of meal planning and grocery shopping. HelloFresh is not just selling a service, but an experience. Customers can enjoy cooking and trying new meals with ingredients they may not have otherwise tried.
  • Last year, Coca-Cola saw a rise in sales thanks to their personalized bottle campaign. The “Share a Coke” campaign featured names on cans and bottles, which gave Coke drinkers an opportunity to interact with friends. People took pictures with their personalized bottles, gave them as gifts, or even made them into baby announcements. A campaign brand executive shared, “We gave consumers an opportunity to express themselves through a bottle of Coke, and to share the experience with someone else.”
  • Chipotle is another great example of a company that creates experiences for their customers. The personalized experience is unlike any other fast food chain: customers can customize their meals with more than 65,000 combinations from the Chipotle menu!

Fraser Larock said it best with, “Products are 25% of what you sell. The rest is an intangible feeling.”

Do you think this trend will continue to rise? Tell us in the comments!

Filed Under: Research & Insights Tagged With: Consumers, experience, purchasing behavior, Trends

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